News

UPHOLD: New Collection exhibition launching soon

Household is excited to announce the launch of UPHOLD: New Collections, a group exhibition that brings together artwork made by some of Northern Ireland’s most exciting contemporary artists, designers and collectives.

New Collections offers an opportunity to view and purchase works by the 25 practitioners and two artist collectives represented on UPHOLD. UPHOLD is our not-for-profit online platform for selling and promoting the work made by artists based or working in Northern Ireland.

This exhibition includes existing work, new works and editions commissioned especially for UPHOLD, and two new editions created in response to some of the themes of Outburst Queer Arts Festival 2022.

Join us for the opening of New Collections on Thursday 3 November, 6-9pm at 35DP, 35 Donegall Place. The exhibition runs until Sunday 20 November and will be open weekly to the public from 10am-4pm, Wednesday to Sunday. New Collections is free to visit and everyone is welcome to attend. 

See here for more details.

Artists in Neighbourhoods

DESIGNED BY NONGRAPHIC STUDIO

Since Household was formed in 2012 we have had an active interest in public art. For this programme we are trialling new ways of commissioning public art / art production in the city. Belfast/ NI has a wealth of creative talent who often miss out on opportunities for upscaling and expanding their practice into the public realm due to lack of support. We believe there is a gap where knowledge and skills can be shared in order to support artists of our city. We believe that meaningful, embedded public art can not only change the look and feel of a city/place but also create new narratives and perspectives.

For the last six months Household have worked with three artists, Jan McCulloughMichael Hanna and Brown&Brí, on proposals for new public art across the city of Belfast.

Artist in Neighbourhoods is a new pilot project set up by Household Belfast C.I.C, an arts organisation that works collectively to support artists and communities make art in the public realm. This initiative has been made possible by the generosity of our partners and funders; Paul Hamlyn FoundationBelfast City Council, Arts Council Northern Ireland

UPHOLD | Household launch new online platform

Household are delighted to announce the launch of UPHOLD, a new not-for profit online platform promoting and selling work by contemporary artists in Northern Ireland. 

UPHOLD is our response to the pandemic and its impact on the visual arts sector in Northern Ireland. We wanted to develop a project that would support and encourage our community, acknowledging the vibrant spectrum of incredible visual artists based in the region and addressing the lack of commercial opportunity for contemporary artists here.

As a not-for-profit enterprise, when you buy a piece of artwork from us you are investing directly in the artist and supporting the arts ecology of Northern Ireland at a crucial time.

Plant, 2014-2016, Jan McCullough, 46cm x 31cm, Framed archival pigment print mounted on aluminium Dibond

Through UPHOLD we provide a nurturing environment for artists and also provide a new resource to find out about contemporary practice in Northern Ireland.   With a wide range of work available, we want to help guide audiences to find a perfect piece of art for their home. More than a simple domestic decoration, we want them to find art that is intriguing, provocative, relevant, compelling, beautiful, and perfect for them.

Dust, 2019-2020, Hannah Casey-Brogan, 15cm x 20cm, Oil paint on aluminium.

The artists we represent have developed strong, engaging, and evolving practices and have a history of exhibiting nationally and internationally.  The first ten artists represented through UPHOLD are Michael Hanna, Jill Quigley, Jan McCullough, Helena Hamilton, John Macormac, Bassam Al Sabah, Hannah Casey-Brogan, Jennifer Mehigan, Miguel Martin, Thomas Wells.

The online platform is custom-designed by NONGRAPHIC studio, and photography by Simon Mills, which you can access here.

UPHOLD is a new initiative set up by Household Belfast C.I.C, an arts organisation that works collectively to support artists and communities make art in the public realm. This initiative has been made possible by the generosity of our partners and funders; Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Belfast City Council, Arts Council Northern Ireland, Arts and Business.  



We are looking for a freelance Marketing Officer

Household is looking for an enthusiastic, organised and committed individual to work with us as a marketing officer in a freelance capacity.

You will work closely with the Co-Directors, project staff and artists to support our work by helping us to communicate what we do and expand our digital engagement with our audiences. We are looking for someone with a demonstrable knowledge of the arts sector in Northern Ireland and internationally, and a minimum of three years experience of managing online social media accounts for an arts related organisation. You will have demonstrable experience in developing successful marketing campaigns within the cultural sector and handling press enquiries, and have written promotional material for an arts related project for a range of audiences.

Duration of contract: 9 months (1 July 2021 – March 2022)

Fee: £6300 

Working hours: freelance (approximately 10 hours per week)

The closing date for expressions of interest is 13th June 2021. View and download the full role profile here.

Image Credit: Simon Mills, Sailortown Music Trail, 2018

not only the earth we share opens to the public

Covid-19 restrictions have lifted and not only the earth we share, Sol Archer’s exhibition of film and sculptural installation by Household’s artist-in-residence Sol Archer at Golden Thread Gallery (24 April – 29 May 2021) curated by Household, opens to the public on Tuesday 25th May. The exhibition examines the past, present, and future of Sailortown, a small neighbourhood in Belfast.

The films included in not only the earth we share are informed by strategies of auto-representation and the social and creative practices of the communities of Sailortown. They explore how storytelling, identity and community are constituents of urban commoning and can result from, and act as agents of, neighbourhood resistance. The films are exhibited alongside archival films sourced from the community, paintings by a local Arts and Crafts group, sculptural props that reference the architectural features of the original buildings in the former neighbourhood, and hanging fabric sculptural interventions that direct movement in the gallery and are reminiscent of domestic community spaces. More information about the exhibition can be found here.

The exhibition is accompanied by a custom-designed platform with additional content designed by NONGRAPHIC studio, which you can access here.

‘not only the earth we share’ by Sol Archer is now online

Instead of opening Sol Archer’s exhibition, not only the earth we share, at Golden Thread Gallery this afternoon (which will happen once the current restrictions lift at the end of May), we are excited to launch the not only the earth we share website, a custom-designed platform by NONGRAPHIC design studio.

Over the coming weeks, we will continue to release content on this website, including information about the exhibition, extracts of the film, oral history interviews and poetry from the Sailortown community, and documentation of the installation at Golden Thread Gallery.

We hope you enjoy the content currently on display, you can access it here.

Recipe call-out

Sugar sandwiches? Nettle soup? Bread and butter pudding? Do you have an old recipe or remedy that you would like to include in a new Sailortown Recipe Book?

Artist Thomas Wells is collecting everyday remedies and recipes to commemorate and celebrate domestic power and life in Sailortown.

With the input from our friends, neighbours and wider community around Sailortown, we will make a recipe book that also serves to tell the stories of working-class people’s history and shared experiences about a post-industrial place.

To have your recipe included please email the recipe title, ingredient list, and preparation steps to info@householdbelfast.co.uk

We sourced the image in this post from the front cover of a recipe book produced by James Clow & Company Ltd., found by Thomas Wells in the Ulster Folk Museum archive. According to our research, James Clow & Co was a company that sold grain, unmanufactured tobacco, seeds and animal feeds and processed white and wholemeal flours at the Prince’s Dock Mills in Sailortown. The site where the James Clow mills once stood now accommodates 135 flats in the James Clow building. The names of the two apartment blocks at James Clow, The Granary and The Merchant, reference the site’s industrial history. 

COVID-19 pandemic precautions

Image taken by Simon Mills of one of the participating houses in Household’s The Arbor screenings programme, 2018.

To slow down the spread of COVID-19 and for the health and wellbeing of our artists, participants and stakeholders, Household and our partners are following government advice and have had to cancel/postpone all participatory activities. For the time being, this also means that the Household team are housebound and working remotely.

We will continue to develop activities for artists and audiences by working on our current projects and will publish new content online where possible. We are working on a Sailortown newspaper designed by our amazing Sean Greer with writer, dramaturg and producer Emily DeDakis and our Sailortown neighbours and friends; recipes and food and memory-related activity with artist Thomas Wells, and a new sound-orientated project with artist Ruth Clinton. We will share more details – and information on how to remotely participate – with you over the coming weeks.  

We hope that you and your loved ones stay safe and well during these uncertain times.

Contemporary Public Art in the Urban Landscape seminar at Tate

We have been invited to present at the Contemporary Public Art in the Urban Landscape seminar, led by the Contemporary Art Society and Tate. We will provide an insight into our work in Sailortown and that of our partners, Sailortown Regeneration, and screened a selection of footage taken by Sol Archer during his multi-annual Sailortown residency. We are delighted to be joined by Starling Start and reunited with the indelible Daniel Jewesbury to discuss public art production in NI. The day’s sessions will include a range of presentations and case studies by speakers from across the UK such as Kirsten Dunne, Claire Doherty, Shani Ali, Georgina Bolton, Sophie Hope, Cara Courage and Sophia Hao.

More info can be found here: https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/conference/contemporary-public-art-urban-landscape

Sol Archer: Year 2 of The production of daily life

The production of daily life

Our artist in residence Sol Archer has just completed Year 2 of his project The production of daily life. Sol spent the summer and autumn in Belfast working on a series of workshops with intergenerational groups of former residents and young current residents. More information and recent images can be found on the The production of daily life Project page.

Still in development, The production of daily life has been funded to date by the Mondriaan Foundation, CBK Rotterdam, NI Screen, DAS and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and supported locally by former and current residents, Sailortown Regeneration, Clanmil Housing Association and the Mission to Seafarers.